Residential building construction



Nov. 4, 1958 R. w. FERGUSON 78 RESIDENTIAL BUILDING cousmuc'rxou Filed Jan. 24, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 9.2 Ins-.1.

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/00 I W/umnFewqusoN A 7' TORNEVS United. States Patent RESIDENTIAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION Robert William Ferguson, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Application January 24, 1957, Serial No. 636,019

4 Claims. (Cl. 201.1)

This invention relates to building construction, and particularly residential building construction.

Years ago, most of the residential building construction was of the Colonial two-story type with the bedrooms on the second floor and the living-eating-kitchen areas on the first floor. This type construction was advantageous in that it provided a maximum floor area per excavated land area. However, this type construction utilized a comparatively large amount of second story wall area in relation to the living area. For this reason and for the further reasons that the Colonial type construction presented a relatively high silhouette there was developed the Cape Cod story and a half construction wherein the upper story was accommodated at least partially within the roof sections so as to lower the silhouette of the building. The Cape Cod type construction utilized a comparatively small quantity of building material per total floor space, but the upper one-half story provided considerably less floor space than the lower story. As a result it was not possible to provide a sufficient number of bedrooms in the upper half story as would accommodate large families without elongating the building.

There has recently been developed the one story Ranch House design wherein all of the bedrooms are on the same level with the living-eating areas. The Ranch House design presents a lower silhouette than either the Cape Cod or Colonial designs. However, a considerably larger excavation area is required to accommodate the Ranch House design, and for this reason it has not been practical to utilize the Ranch House design in many city locations. Other disadvantages with the Ranch House design are the higher heating costs and higher building material costs resulting from the fact that the roof and exterior wall area per unit floor space is higher than with the Cape Cod or Colonial design.

The present invention seeks to overcome some of the disadvantages of the Colonial, Cape Cod and Ranch House designs, while retaining some of the advantages of these designs. More particularly the present invention seeks to provide a residential building construction wherein:

(1) the building presents the same comparatively low silhouette as the conventional Ranch House,

(2) the building is provided with two stories in the manner of the conventional Colonial construction wherein the second story floor area is substantially the same as the first story floor area,

(3) the building utilizes a lesser quantity of wall and roof building materials in relation to the total floor area than has been possible with previous designs.

Other objects of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the upper story of a two story building constructed according to the present invention,

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with the roof outline being shown in phantom lines for illustration purposes.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the lower story of the Fig. 1 construction.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is an elevational View taken in the direction of arrow 4 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially on line 55 in Fig. 2 but showing a stairway 36 in phantom lines for illustration purposes.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

In the drawings there is shown a building 10 which includes four foundation Walls 12, set on concrete footings 14. A concrete slab floor 16 interconnects the lower portions of walls 12. It will be noted from Fig. 3 that foundation walls 12 are sunk into the ground with their upper edges substantially on the same level as the grade line 18.

Four exterior walls 20, 22, 24, and 26 extend upwardly from foundation walls 12. The intermediate portions of walls 20, 22, 24 and 26 are interconnected by a second story floor 23. Exterior wall 22 is provided with a door 30 which opens onto a landing 32 positioned at the upper edge of the adjacent foundation wall 12. A stairway 34 extends upwardly from landing 32 to second story floor 28, and a stairway 36 extends downwardly from landing 32 to lower story floor 16. v

The lower story shown in Fig. 2 is suitably partitioned into four bedrooms 38, 40, 42 and 44, and a bathroom 46, and a storage space 48. Closets for the bedrooms are provided at 50, 52, 54, 56 and 58. A linen closet is provided at 60.

The second story shown in Fig. 1 is partitioned to provide a living-dining area 62, a kitchen area 64, laundry areas 66 and 68, and lavatory 70. Two parallel partitions 72 and 74 extend upwardly from floor 28 to roof sections 76 and 78 so as to provide two storage areas 80 and 82. Roof sections 76 and 73 extend outwardly and downwardly from a horizontal ridge pole 84 which extends between diagonally opposite vertical corners 86 and 88 of the building. Partitions 72 and 74 are of substantially adult walking height ,so that the entire upper story area between these partitions is usable for living purposes. The usable floor area in the upper story is substantially the same as that in the lower story since the storage areas 80 and 82 subtract very little floor area from the total upper story floor area. This is in contrast to the conventional Cape Cod construction wherein the ridge pole extends parallel to alternate ones of the exterior walls in such manner that substantial floor areas adjacent the roof eaves are of less than adult walking heights so as to render them unusable for habitation purposes. This increase in useful living area in the upper story is achieved without any increase in the total roof area as compared with the roof area of a conventional Cape Cod structure of the same plan size; in fact the roof area in the present construction is less than in the Cape Cod construction.

Besides the saving in root area the present construction also reduces the total wall area requirements as compared with the wall area requirements of a conventional two-story Colonial structure. Each of the exterior walls 20, 22, 24 and 26 is of trapezoidal configuration in elevation. The longer vertical edges of adjacent walls are secured together to form the aforementioned corners 86 and 88. The shorter vertical edges of adjacent trapezoidal walls are secured together to form corners 90 and 92. As can be seen in Fig. 4 upper edges 91 of the trapezoidal walls are angled from the horizontal in accordance with the pitch of the superjacent roof section. The exterior walls may be constructedof any suitable building materials and may be provided with any desired window areas, but as shown in Fig. 4-the exterior walls in the illustrated embodiment are of wooden siding. Exterior wall 22 is provided with fixed glass areas 92, 93, 94, 96, and 98, and openable sash elements 100 and 102. Sash element 100 provides ventilation for the lower story, and sash element 102 provides ventilation for the upper story. Exterior walls 20, 24 and 26 are preferably provided with the same floor to ceiling window arrangement as that employed in wall 22.

For purposes of insuring maximum floor space per total exterior wall area a square floor plan is employed. However, if desired, slight deviations from the square floor plan may be employed. The sunken character of foundation walls 12 gives the illustrated building a low exterior silhouette having an outer appearance similar to the conventional ranch house or contemporary designs. This low silhouette feature is however obtained in a two story building structure which permits it to be constructed on small size lots which could not accommodate the conventional ranch house. The diagonally extending character of ridge pole 84 gives the upper story a comparatively large useful floor area in a construction which utilizes comparatively small quantities of roof and wall materials.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A building structure comprising four vertical walls interconnected together to form a building substantially square in plan; each of said walls taking the shape of a trapezoid, with the two two parallel edges thereof extending in vertical directions; adjacent ones of the walls having their longer vertical edges secured together; a horizontal ridge pole extending between said longer vertical edges; and triangular roof sections extending outwardly and downwardly from said ridge pole so as to cover the building structure.

2.-A building structure comprising four foundation walls sunk into the ground and forming a substantially square floor plan; a floor interconnecting the lower edges of said foundation walls to form bedroom space; an entrance landing extending inwardly from one of the foundation walls at the upper edge thereof; four exterior walls extending upwardly from the foundation Walls; each of said exterior walls taking the shape of a trapezoid, with the two parallel edges thereof extending in vertical directions; a second floor interconnecting intermediate portions of said exterior walls to form kitchen-living space; a first stairway extending upwardly from said landing to said second floor; a second stairway extending downwardly from said landing to said first floor; a horizontal ridge pole extending between opposite corners of the exterior walls; and substantially triangular roof sections extending outwardly and downwardly from said ridge pole to cover the building structure.

3. A building structure comprising four vertical trapezoidal walls interconnected to form a building substantially square in plan; a horizontal ridge pole extending across opposite corners of said building; a floor interconnecting said walls; triangular roof sections extending outwardly and downwardly from said ridge pole to shelter said building structure; and vertical partitions parallel with said ridge pole, said partitions extending from said floor to said roof sections and being of substantially adult walking height.

4. A building construction comprising four interconnected foundation walls extending downwardly into the ground so as to form a sunken substantially square building structure, a floor interconnecting the lower portions of said foundation walls; four exterior trapezoidal walls extending upwardly from the foundation Walls to form an exposed building structure; a second floor spanning intermediate portions of said second walls; a horizontal ridge pole extending diagonally from opposite vertical corners of the exposed building structure; triangular roof sections extending outwardly and downwardly from said ridge pole so as to cover said building structure; and vertical partitions parallel with the ridge pole, said partitions extending from the second floor to the roof sections and being of substantially adult walking height.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED I STATES PATENTS 

